The speakers included Bezwada Wilson of Safai Karmachari Andolan, Dipa Sinha of the Right to Food Campaign, Anjali Bhardwaj of Satark Nagrik Sangathan, Amrita Johri of Sathark Nagrik Sangathan and Usha Ramanathan, Independent Law Researcher.The speakers expressed their anguish that in the last few months there have been a series of notifications making Aadhaar mandatory, in direct violation of the orders of the Supreme Court.

On 28 February, the government has notified that children will not be served their midday meal unless their aadhaar numbers have been embedded in the data base. This is just one in a long list of coercive steps taken by the government.

The activists alleged that this is in flagrant contempt of the orders of the Supreme Court that aadhaar can not be used at all except in six specified schemes and even in those schemes, it can be complied with only voluntarily.

The Government’s recent notifications indicate a callous disregard for the lives and health of the people of this country, especially the poor, the activists alleged.

Thus aadhaar has been made a prerequisite for getting disability scholarships, education stipends, enrolment in adult literacy programmes, registration for career for scheduled castes and tribes, among many many others. It even includes the scheme that is supposedly to assist women rescued from trafficking – and so marking them in data bases for life, the activists lamented.

Several of these notifications impact women directly including the recent one making Aadhaar mandatory for the mid day meal scheme, for the Public Distribution Scheme and for women rescued from trafficking or sex work.

Apart from the blatant illegality of these notifications, their impact on women’s lives, individual rights and liberties has not been examined, they pointed out.

Accusing the Government of promoting Aadhaar through these notifications making it mandatory, Usha Ramanathan asked whether it is driven by its ambition to make India, a digital superpower. She explained that the strategy is to first enrol people, and get their data, and weed them out later.

Saying that in the name of Aadhaar, intimate details of people are being shared with corporates, she claimed that business ambitions and philanthropy go hand in hand.

She further pointed out that people are completely insecure in this process, as the Government seems determined to experiment with its own people, who are hapless.

She expressed her concern that different segments of population are getting trapped into Aadhaar, and the objective of the Government is to threaten, and not to reach the benefits of the people.

Amrita Johri revealed that the distribution of ration cards in Delhi has exposed serious flaws with the denial of ration cards to genuine beneficiaries merely because one member of the family has still not applied for Aadhaar, or the family members obtained Aadhaar cards after the ration card distribution scheme was over.

Anjali Bharadwaj explained that the argument that Aadhaar is required to fight corruption is a bogus one.

Bezwada Wilson, one of the petitioners before the Supreme Court, who has challenged the constitutionality of Aadhaar on the ground of right to privacy, described the scheme as anti-poor. He pointed out that Aadhaar ignores the problem of identity of vulnerable communities. “We want to bury our identity, but the society does not allow us. Aadhaar will be a stigma for us”, said the Magsaysay award winner.

Saying that sanitation workers have a right to conceal their identity, Wilson asked whether Aadhaar would make them brand ambassadors as scavengers.

Written and Published by http://www.livelaw.in/

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Top Consulted General Legal Advocates

Advocate Jay Bhatia is a Mumbai based lawyer and has been practising law since 1998. He has been providing legal and advisory services as an independent lawyer. Advocate Jay Bhatia got enrolled with the Bar Council in the year 1998.
He has acquired his legal education from Government Law College Mumbai and holds extensive experience in working in the most complex areas of Civil Litigation, Corporate Law, Family Law, Documentation and Immigration. He holds experience in efficiently handling varied cases and often makes appearances across Central Administrative Tribunal(CAT) Mumbai, District Court Mumbai, Debts Recovery Tribunal(DRT) Mumbai and City Civil Court Mumbai.
He avidly believes in achieving the objectives of his client with compassion and accurate advocacy. Advocate Jay Bhatia is known for providing timely and responsive legal services for his clients by providing them with the most expeditious legal course of action.

Advocate Devender Singh Rao is a Rewari based lawyer and has been practising law since 2008. He has been providing legal and advisory services as an independent lawyer. Advocate Devender Singh Rao got enrolled with the Bar Council in the year 2009.
He has acquired his legal education at University Of Rajasthan and holds extensive experience in working in the most complex areas of Bail/Anticipatory Bail, Banking, Cheque Bounce, Civil Litigation, Consumer Protection, Criminal Defense and Cyber Crime. He holds experience in efficiently handling varied cases and often makes appearances across Debts Recovery Tribunal (DRT) Delhi, Delhi High Court, District Consumer Forums Delhi, District Court Gurgaon, District Court Rewari, Family Courts Delhi and Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) Delhi.
He avidly believes in achieving the objectives of his client with compassion and accurate advocacy. Advocate Devender Singh Rao is known for providing timely and responsive legal services for his clients by providing them with the most expeditious legal course of action.

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He has experience of 9+ years in the legal profession and providing services. He provides services in fair and transparent manner with result oriented approach. He is very supportive and friendly to his clients both professionally and ethically. He is consistent and precise in identifying strength and weakness of the matter.

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He is professionally dealing with the cases in the field of law pertaining to both Civil and Criminal Matters with specialization in Family and Land and Revenue Matters.
Advocate U I Sodagar is a respected advocate in Vadodara and has enriched with the implementation of latest case study and research. He has been practicing and handling cases independently with a result oriented approach and he believes that a proper legal advice to a client and litigant can be given after considering the entire matter. His approach to all his clients is in providing practical and legal solutions to all their cases.

Advocate Mayank Goel is a Delhi based lawyer and has been practising law since 2017. He has been providing legal and advisory services as an independent lawyer. Advocate Mayank Goel got enrolled with the Bar Council in the year 2017.
He holds extensive experience in working in the most complex areas of Consumer Protection, Cheque Bounce, Default or Fraud, General Legal and RERA. He holds experience in efficiently handling varied cases and often makes appearances across Debts Recovery Tribunal (DRT) Delhi, Delhi High Court, District Court Gurgaon and National Commission (NCDRC).
He avidly believes in achieving the objectives of his client with compassion and accurate advocacy. Advocate Mayank Goel is known for providing timely and responsive legal services for his clients by providing them with the most expeditious legal course of action.

Advocate Kamal Kumar Mathur provides services in fields of civil laws, criminal laws, employment related matters, family law, consumer cases, landlord-tenant matters, revenue related matters, arbitration matters, matrimonial related matters and drafting and vetting of various agreements and documents.
He was enrolled with the Bar Council of Rajasthan in 2007. He is also a member of the Rajasthan High Court Bar Association.
He has got 12+ year experience in the providing legal services. He works judiciously with the clients to provide them legal assistant. He is intricately acquainted with the Indian legal system and uses that knowledge along with his work-oriented approach to yield satisfying results for his clients in every case.

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